Kwame Kilpatrick Allegedly Took $10,000 Bribe

The Detroit Free Press is reporting allegations against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that came to light after a close friend was charged with money laundering.

The allegations were revealed in a superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court in the case against Bobby Ferguson, a close friend of Kilpatrick.

The charges [against Ferguson] are related to Ferguson’s alleged attempts to conceal $1.7 million in extorted payments that he received for no-show work from a contractor.

Today’s indictment also offered a new, stunning allegation that Kilpatrick pocketed a $10,000 kickback in a restroom.

According to the indictment, the money exchange happened during a meeting in the fall of 2007. Kilpatrick had asked Derrick Miller to try to get money from a restaurant developer who was seeking a loan from the city’s pension funds for the Asian Village restaurant development, the indictment alleged.

Miller ended up getting $10,000 from the restaurant developer, and handed the money over to Kilpatrick in a restroom in the developer’s restaurant, the document charges.

The superseding indictment also details new allegations of criminal activity involving Kilpatrick and his co-defendants in a pending federal racketeering case. The fresh allegations are meant to bolster the government’s argument that Kilpatrick and his co-defendants, including his father and Ferguson, ran a criminal enterprise to enrich themselves.

If these charges are true, Kilpatrick, a former Democratic Party superstar, should be ashamed of himself. Voters put their trust in him, and all he did was help hasten the decline of Detroit, a former industrial powerhouse that is on the verge of bankruptcy today.